Explaining Vanguards Aggro...

[Yogol]

I am currently tanking with my Vanguard and was wondering how aggro worked, so I read up about it and asked around... here is the information that I gathered... feel free to let me know if you disagree or have extra knowledge to share!

 

1. The base aggro of an attack = 100% of the damage it does.

(to compare, the base aggro of a heal = 50% of the heal, divided equally among all enemies of the healed person)

 

2. All aggro is multiplied with 2 when you have our tank stance (Ion Cell) active.

 

3. Our Guard-ability lowers the aggro of the guarded ally with 25%.

Always use this ability! Most of the time, you want this guard to be on the healer of the party.

 

Result: when you have Ion cell active, you will keep aggro as long you do 50% the damage of a DPS and 25% damage of the heals (even less when you guard the healer). However, this is often impossible, so we received some nifty tools...

 

4. Vanguards have 3 special aggro attacks...

Note that none of these 3 attacks do damage. This is a good thing, because it means that they do not break CC, which is very nice for the AOE taunt, Sonic Round.

 

- Harpoon : adds a certain fixed amount to your aggro (even if you are already the highest). You can see in your combat log how much, the amount depends on your stats.

 

- Neural Jolt : forces everyone nearby to attack you for 6 seconds + adds to your aggro: it puts your aggro on 130% (or 110%*) of the highest aggro for that mob (even if you are already the highest aggro!).

 

- Sonic Round : forces your target and everyone around it to attack you for 6 seconds + adds to your aggro: it puts your aggro on 130% (or 110%*) of the highest aggro for each mob that was near (even if you are already the highest aggro!).

Note that the taunt from Sonic Round is centered around the mob that you target, not around you.

 

* it is 110% if you are within 4 meters of your target, 130% if you are not... so try to be 4 meters away from your target when you taunt, just take a step or two back.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Yogol

[CitizenFry]

Base threat of an attack is equal to the damage it deals.

Base threat of a heal is (I believe) equal to half the value of the heal, and it's divided equally among all enemies that are in combat with the recipient of the heal.

Ion Cell does indeed double the threat output of attacks.

Guard reduces all threat for the guarded target by X%.

 

Harpoon deals zero damage, but deals some amount of threat. Looking at a recent HM EC parse, my harpoons mostly dealt 2784 threat, but one of them hit for 3622 threat. Dunno what's up with that. Values may depend on gear or other considerations. Check your own parses!

 

Taunts set your threat for affected targets equal to "the amount of threat required to pull aggro off current aggro holder" and also apply a 6-second fixate. 110% of current threat is required for melee (<4m) to pull aggro; 130% of current threat is required for ranged (>4m) to pull aggro. A corollary to this is that if you're just in it to boost your own threat, it's better to fire your taunt from >4m away.

 

Neural Jolt only affects a single target. It does not do anything to other targets.

 

Sonic round affects whoever you've targeted, and other targets within X meters of the primary target.

Edited August 3, 2012 by CitizenFry

[CitizenFry]

- On a boss, I usually Storm, Surge*, Surge*, Jolt & Sonic Round. I then use Neural Jolt everytime it is up.

 

It would be more efficient to do something like

Storm -> Ion Pulse -> Energy Blast -> Ion Pulse -> free Explosive Surge -> Stockstrike -> free Explosive Surge

 

just for ammo considerations. No point using your free Explosive Surges while you're full on ammo. Insert Neural Jolt and Sonic Round in there wherever you feel comfortable, since they're off the global cooldown. The longer you can wait, the more threat you'll gain from them.

[Justcae]

*someone posted that it only gives 130% when further away than 4 meters and 110% when close, is there an ''official'' source for this claim?

 

Yes, confirmed on the threat thing.

 

110% in melee, 130% for ranged. If you are able to get range on the boss, it's very much something you should do.

 

It would be more efficient to do something like

Storm -> Ion Pulse -> Energy Blast -> Ion Pulse -> free Explosive Surge -> Stockstrike -> free Explosive Surge

 

Agreed on the placement for ammo regen. I usually start off with my harpoon, though as it has a minimum range and even if boss is immune to physics the threat still applies.

 

Citizen's works for the fastest Absorb stacks, I usually go fastest threat with the following.

 

Harpoon -> Storm -> Stockstrike (applies Ion Cell Dot, places Stockstrike on CD, allowing reset as fast as possible) -> Energy Blast/HiB (Both 15s CD, I like to use them together) -> Ion Pulse -> Surge -> Ion Pulse -> etc.

[BlastingGravy]

Here's what I do on bosses.

Harpoon>Battle Focus (off cooldown)>Storm>Stockstrike>Ion pulse and energy blast until at full stacks of power screen>explosive surge

 

Open with harpoon for the immediate threat, and since you can't use it once you're in close. I highly recommend using battle focus immediately afterwards for the extra damage and threat boost. Using the free explosive surges right after storm is a complete waste. You want to save them for after you've used some ammo in order to give it time to regenerate. They don't do that much damage to single targets anyway, so you should prioritize harder hitting attacks to make the most of your battle focus, and build threat quickly.

[Yogol]

I highly recommend using battle focus immediately afterwards for the extra damage and threat boost.

 

Battle focus? Really? I don't think I ever used that skill as a tank. Ever. But I'll check and see how it goes!

[Outtkast]

Battle focus? Really? I don't think I ever used that skill as a tank. Ever. But I'll check and see how it goes!

 

I use battle focus on CD always. It is a great threat boost. I find that when I don't pop it is when the DPS creep up on me. I was avoiding taunt because I was unaware that it upped your threat permanently. I will def work that in now.

[BlastingGravy]

Battle focus? Really? I don't think I ever used that skill as a tank. Ever. But I'll check and see how it goes!

It boosts your damage (and therefore threat), costs nothing, and is off the global cooldown. Why on earth wouldn't you use it? It's funny how many people forget this ability.